EA Responds to Harsh Criticism

April 6th, 2013, 03:11

It's time for more EA news and it's a dozy. After being nominated by Consumerist as the Worst Company in America for its second year in a row, EA CEO Peter Moore shot back with a post on the EA news feed.

As you'd imagine, he admitted to the company being capable of doing better, but argued that it's also doing many things right. Five main points were made in rebuttal, which were the following:

Many continue to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is a DRM scheme. It’s not. People still want to argue about it. We can’t be any clearer – it’s not. Period.

Some claim there’s no room for Origin as a competitor to Steam. 45 million registered users are proving that wrong.

Some people think that free-to-play games and micro-transactions are a pox on gaming. Tens of millions more are playing and loving those games.

We’ve seen mailing lists that direct people to vote for EA because they disagree with the choice of the cover athlete on Madden NFL. Yes, really…

In the past year, we have received thousands of emails and postcards protesting against EA for allowing players to create LGBT characters in our games. This week, we’re seeing posts on conservative web sites urging people to protest our LGBT policy by voting EA the Worst Company in America.

Peter Moore seems pretty proud of himself. If you seriously have any qualms with the company you need to consider making your point with your wallet. Seeing EA get flamed left and right but having the company continually report green revenues is ridiculous. If gamers really seek change they're going to have to do a lot more than complain on blogs, because that isn't working.

Before we let are hate and disappointment out remember this one fact. The ones who complain, and cast doubt are in the minority. He is right millions play there games despite everything they do.

Looks like the typical "we are awesome, and if you don't agree then you're a smelly poo head" response that PR people and politicians love so much. Someone give him a glass of milk and a cookie, pat him on the head, and send him on his way.

Originally Posted by Menigal
Looks like the typical "we are awesome, and if you don't agree then you're a smelly poo head" response that PR people and politicians love so much. Someone give him a glass of milk and a cookie, pat him on the head, and send him on his way.

Well he is the new EA CEO. He has to look good for his new masters. The dreaded stockholders, and the board of directors..

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Worst company because people don't like the ending of ME3. LOL I like this guy. Seriously the Internet gaming community is full of whiny bitches and he is calling them out. EA is a publisher and that appears to be a crime. They happen to be a very big publisher which is a very big crime.

Dunno why America nominates EA for the worst company, but in my case it definetly is worst.
Ubilike DRM but in worse shape (lurking malware that runs always in your tray by default), overexpensive con the masses stuff (DLC), taxfree and probably illicit currencies that open a space to money laundry schemes (bioware points, simpoints, whatever points) and permabans+accremoval for whatever silly reason. Add to this the crap support when you buy EA game on Gamersgate and not on Origin - I really can't think of worse gaming company out there.

They're a big publisher? That's not an excuse, other big publishers out there respect their customers.

And saying "we're not the worst, just look at those numbers"… What logic is that? Consumers didn't vote on someone's business success and money figures. If they did, then mafia would be on the top of the list of best things ever.

I didn't want Steam or Origin, but sadly you have no choice if you want to play certain games. I don't have the strength to refuse to buy games I have really been looking forward too… BUT with KS and similar projects becoming more popular, several of my upcoming favorite games will be separated from either DRM system - *that* is me voting with my wallet! The fact remains though that many people simply don't consider the issues that many of us fret about as issues… they're happy to have there consumer rights eroded it seems, sometimes only discovering later that they should have paid attention. I refuse to buy any (non-network-centric) 'always online' game though - That's where I draw the line.

EA sucked long before ME 3 came out. I think that game was just the final straw for some people, but they had many more travesties before that. The sheer need that they seem to have to put multiplayer on every damn game that they are involved in not to mention the various DRM's they do is enough to keep me away for life.

Originally Posted by GhanBuriGhan
And maybe indeed a sign that people take gaming too seriously?

Thats what I said to myself when I read this topic.

EA surely has a reputation for destroying gamestudios. Heck it may be the one of the worst videogame publishers, but they are saints if compared to real villains. All that EA does is publish videogames. They have notoriously bad customer service and I can relate to people who despise always online policies, but seriously the worst company in America?

As far as I know EA doesn't pollute nature or violate health regulations daily bases. They don't sell weapons to third world countries either.